Hospitality is synonymous with a transient workforce, but an increased focus on culture and retention can be a rewarding strategy, says Kevin Armstrong. 

Look at the world’s best bars and often you will see a figurehead or superstar topping the bill – a headline act, for want of a better term. 

What lies beneath, however, is often more important. With the headliners so frequently on tour, promoting their own personal brands and that of their businesses, it is usually the responsibility of a core team of great people, working diligently in the background, to keep our favourite bars operating.   

In the winter 2025 edition of Class magazine I talked about recruitment, specifically the options we have (or lack of) when it comes to employing skilled bar professionals. These evolving recruitment challenges have shaped the way I think about business and the important people in it, and this in turn now influences much, if not all, of our decision making.  

So how are these things connected? The answer lies in the retention of existing talent and what we can do as businesses to keep our very best people, keep our businesses working, and have long-term, high-quality performers. 

Team selection 

Forgive the football analogy but the best teams have stability in selection; ever-present names that are first on the team sheet. These might include your “star” player, if you have one, but frequently it’s the people who form the backbone of your team and keeping those people has never been more critical. 

Now I am no expert on work culture or retention strategies, but I have thought long and hard about what my experiences were while I was employed, and how I would like our business to be viewed and experienced by those who work in it. Indeed, I increasingly see this as one of my core responsibilities – how do we curate an environment that assists in the retention of existing talent?  

Like all businesses, we have internal issues and tensions, and we get things wrong, but we also work hard to get things right, and I am confident that without these efforts, we’d be faced with even greater problems. 

Retain rather than recruit 

I don’t know a single owner, operator or manager that genuinely enjoys the recruitment process, but few openly talk about their active retention strategies, the very thing that would in theory have them doing less recruiting. 

For starters, my belief is that even in a small business like ours, the agreement should be more than just the transactional and conventional work/pay arrangement. 

There’s no denying that fair pay is a sizeable factor in retention, but between margins being squeezed and operating costs increasing, there will always be limits on what any given business can offer. Beyond managing your wage cost, keep an eye on take-home pay and be prepared to review if and when you can. Competitive remuneration will never be held against you.    

In addition, each year over the past four years we’ve been able to offer small bonuses to everyone in the team. These will never be life-changing sums (hospitality work seldom offers up those kinds of numbers), but they are meaningful gestures of goodwill. 

Three years ago, we also introduced another incentive to increase the attractiveness of our package; we offered all established full-time employees comprehensive health insurance – a safety net for care, should the worst happen. 

On top of this, every eight to 10 weeks we try to schedule visits to some of London’s best restaurants, exploring what our capital has to offer and learning where we can from other hospitality professionals. 

Yes, there is investment required at every stage, but my view is that this is easily balanced out with less time lost to recruiting and training, and from the dividends that come with having experienced, motivated and valued people operating your space – in short, the business absolutely must give back to the team that make it work. 

Trust, learning and communication   

Increased retention isn’t limited solely to reward either. How a business reacts, shares information, and supports its people can be equally important examples. 

We do our best to communicate well and clearly. From internal objectives to compliance/operational changes, or even industry news, we share because included people feel noticed and valued.  

Trust too is critical. The team must know that the business will support their work with equipment and materials. Frustration and resentment build within a team when the job is made harder by underinvestment in provisions. Providing the correct and working tools is a non-negotiable. 

As a small business we have limited upward mobility in roles, but that does not preclude anyone from getting access to skills training or qualifications that might be beneficial to their onward careers. For instance, we have facilitated seven out of nine full-time employees to be personal licence holders, and we have invested in multiple other paid trainings and management courses to encourage development. 

There is more of course, but these relatively simple considerations have allowed us to build teams whose longevity has way outstripped the expected retention time for people in our sector. While this is good for the business, and my desire to avoid recruitment, ultimately the aim is also make our place of work a more desirable and fulfilling place to be.   

People will always move on, but if we work in the right way and do the right things, we might just make the revolving door move a little more slowly.